Soviets offer incentives to raise the birthrate

The Soviet leadership boasted that it can build up the military while providing for the poor with a social program that includes ''rubles-for-babies'' incentives aimed at raising the birthrate.

Under the new Soviet plan, women giving birth to a first child will receive the equivalent of $67.50, according to the official but badly inflated exchange rate. Grants of $337.50 will be made to mothers for births beyond 10.